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Virginia Cooking School, with Recipes

The drive south from Washington, D.C., leads you away from the political arena of the city to the rolling hills, gentle landscapes, and charming views of the Virginia countryside. This is historic country, settled before the Revolutionary War. One of the grandest houses of that period is the stately Inn at Meander Plantation in Locust Dale, Virginia.

The plantation, patented in 1726, is located near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and James Madison's Montpelier. Once frequent host to both presidents and other historical luminaries, today the plantation's inn remains a welcoming getaway-and a relaxing spot for a cooking class-for Washingtonians on retreat, newlyweds, or vacationers touring nearby colonial-era historic sites.

The simplicity of colonial style-pure, austere, and elegant-permeates the public spaces of the inn, and a stay there starts with settling into cozy renovated quarters. These include a romantic two-story retreat that once was the summer kitchen and a secluded beamed-ceiling Groom's Cottage. The grounds include working stables.

After a day of riding, relaxing, or touring-the inn staff will arrange for tours of Montpelier or Monticello and send explorers off with a picnic lunch-guests gather for drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the drawing room or on the wraparound porch. Then, they'll enjoy a prix-fixe dinner in the salon or dining room. Friends are made, conversation is lively, and a meal perfected by innkeepers Suzie Blanchard and Suzanne Thomas is shared. Small-batch wines from Virginia vineyards complement dinner.

The monthly two-day cooking classes include accommodations, lunches, an informal dinner on Monday, and a more formal dinner on Tuesday. Students gather in the snug restaurant kitchen for a completely hands-on experience, congenially bumping elbows with the chefs, wait staff, and each other.

This month's Celebrate Autumn class showcases the bounty of the fall garden-corn, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplant, and aromatic silvery sage. Suzie (at left) starts with Harvest Corn Soup, turning a farm-stand staple into an elegant, full-flavored puree. She coaxes sweet corn taste into the soup by pressing cooked corn through a strainer to get the purest liquid possible. The flavor is impeccable. A fresh tomato, sage, and scallop topper finishes the dish.

Chef Alexander Morris's main dish recipe, Virginia Ham-Stuffed Beef Tenderloin, is simple to prepare and a showstopper at dinner. He guides students in rolling a traditional spinach, leek, sausage, and ham stuffing into a flattened beef tenderloin. The result, roasted and sliced to display its spiraled interior, has rich flavor without resorting to heavy sauces. The ham and sausage are also from local growers.

A colorful side dish, Ratatouille Napoleon, shows off the harvest garden with its panoply of summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and thyme and rosemary. The slightly roasted vegetables, layered and baked, weave their flavors together in a dish that celebrates freshness and the adage "what grows together, goes together."

It's a convivial group that sits down to dinner. Tomorrow, students will learn to interpret recipes as their own, hear from a local winemaker, and complete their tutorial with a five-course dinner paired with Virginia wines. "We like to end with a graceful, gourmet experience," Suzie says. Assuredly, the relaxed gentility of the Inn at Meander Plantation encourages this centuries-old tradition of fine dining.

The State of the Vine
"Our dinner menus pair locally produced wines with each course. It's a perfect tie-in with our regional food philosophy," says Suzanne Thomas. "Virginia had a fledgling wine industry when we moved here--a world of wines we could really get our minds around and promote." Today, the state boasts more than 200 wineries. Suzanne and Suzie create Virginia Wine Trail tours for guests, often serving as guides.

"The best varietals are Voignier and Petit Verdot. Voignier is able to tolerate the Virginia humidity and long growing season," Suzanne explains. "Because of this, it produces stellar wines. The red Petit Verdot, previously used as a blending wine, is coming into its own."

What's for dinner, Mrs. Washington?
Our colonial culinary treasures are well documented and easy to reproduce at home. Nach Waxman, owner of Kitchen Arts and Letters, the legendary New York City bookstore dedicated to all tomes gastronomic, shares his favorite American heritage cookbooks.

. Harriott Pinkney Horry. A Colonial Plantation Cookbook. 1770 (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1984. $20). Early recipes transcribed from a manuscript household book, with useful notes and information on period ingredients and cooking methods.

. Martha Washington. Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. (Columbia Univ. Press, 1981. $26). Ancestral household notebooks dating back to the early 17th century, brought by Martha Dandridge Custis into her marriage to George Washington. Each new custodian updated the handwritten books for her generation. Immensely useful notes on every aspect of food and cooking practices. Unpublished until this edition appeared.

. Mary Randolph. The Virginia Housewife. 1824 (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1997. $30). A valuable repository of recipes and household advice taken from family notebooks. Superb notes by food historian Karen Hess, who also edited the Martha Washington compilation.

Scrub corn with stiff vegetable brush to remove silks. Rinse under cold running water. Place one ear of corn at a time in shallow pan. Holding corn at an angle, use sharp knife to remove kernels. You should have about 8 cups of corn.

Horizontally cut tenderloin to, but not through, the opposite side. Open to expose cut surfaces. Cover with clear plastic wrap. Pound tenderloin with meat mallet from center to edges, making a 3/4-inch-thick 11x8-inch rectangle; set aside. In 12-inch skillet cook sausage and leek over medium heat until sausage is no longer pink, stirring to break up sausage. Drain fat. Stir in ham; heat through.

Arrange spinach on beef. Top spinach with filling. Starting from long side, roll up meat tightly into spiral. Tie at 2-1/2 inch intervals with 100 percent cotton kitchen string. [See the next four slides for technique demonstration.] Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Using a mandoline or sharp knife, slice vegetables lengthwise about 1/4 inch thick. Line two or three 15x10x1-inch baking pans with parchment paper.

Arrange vegetables in single layer on prepared pans. Brush vegetables with olive oil. Roast vegetables until just tender; 10 minutes for eggplant,
12 minutes for zucchini and summer squash, and 18 minutes for tomatoes (tomatoes should be soft and starting to break). Prepare vegetables in
batches if necessary.